The New Republic Debuts Redesign

Almost a year after being purchased by Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes, The New Republic has unveiled an extensive redesign. In addition to its 20 annual print issues—the first of which hits newsstands today—the revamped New Republic brand includes a website, tablet app, audio versions of its articles and a live event platform.

“We believe that our new hyper-information age is thrilling, but not entirely satisfying,” Hughes wrote in his debut issue as publisher and editor in chief, which includes a cover interview with President Obama. “We believe that there must remain space for journalism that takes time to produce and demands a longer attention span—writing that is at once nourishing and entertaining.”

The 29-year-old Hughes purchased the nearly century-old magazine last March with an aim to infuse the brand's print legacy with a startup mentality and digital know-how (Hughes also served as an online campaign adviser to Obama). Several of the changes, like rehiring former editor Michael Kinsley to write a series of profiles and adding a new feature titled “From the Stacks” that republishes articles from The New Republic’s archives, pay homage to the magazine’s past.

Since March, The New Republic’s subscriptions have risen from 34,000 to 44,177, while newsstand sales increased by 68 percent to an average of 1,738 copies for the last five issues since 2011, Hughes told The New York Times. Hughes has also doubled the magazine’s staff, hired its first in-house art department, opened a New York bureau and will soon move its Washington, D.C., headquarters to a new location above the International Spy Museum.

Almost a year after being purchased by Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes, The New Republic has unveiled an extensive redesign. In addition to its 20 annual print issues—the first of which hits newsstands today—the revamped New Republic brand includes a website, tablet app, audio versions of its articles and a live event platform.

“We believe that our new hyper-information age is thrilling, but not entirely satisfying,” Hughes wrote in his debut issue as publisher and editor in chief, which includes a cover interview with President Obama. “We believe that there must remain space for journalism that takes time to produce and demands a longer attention span—writing that is at once nourishing and entertaining.”

The 29-year-old Hughes purchased the nearly century-old magazine last March with an aim to infuse the brand's print legacy with a startup mentality and digital know-how (Hughes also served as an online campaign adviser to Obama). Several of the changes, like rehiring former editor Michael Kinsley to write a series of profiles and adding a new feature titled “From the Stacks” that republishes articles from The New Republic’s archives, pay homage to the magazine’s past.

Since March, The New Republic’s subscriptions have risen from 34,000 to 44,177, while newsstand sales increased by 68 percent to an average of 1,738 copies for the last five issues since 2011, Hughes told The New York Times. Hughes has also doubled the magazine’s staff, hired its first in-house art department, opened a New York bureau and will soon move its Washington, D.C., headquarters to a new location above the International Spy Museum.